Re: software to do drawings of houses, gardens, etc.
On 28.11.17 21:41, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Erik Christiansen wrote:
>
> > After trying to get various GUI drawing
> > packages to function at the most basic level,
> > and failing to produce anything, I'm just
> > finishing the 8 drawings for my new house
> > build (floor plan, elevations, sections, and
> > site plan), using raw postscript. That has
> > proven a better fit for a retired programmer.
> > [...]
>
> Sounds *great* and my thinking/style is exactly
> the same!
>
> Do you mind sharing the source and Makefile?
It's not necessary to build anything - I've just defined a few
postscript procedures at the start of the postscript document.
Job done.
On 28.11.17 21:45, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Erik Christiansen wrote:
>
> > Interesting ... I had not heard of it
> > previously. Looking at it on wikipedia, I see
> > "Most operations in Xfig are performed using
> > the mouse," For the first, I've had no luck
> > mouse-wrangling GUI drawing packages - it's
> > all so counter-intuitive, and nothing works
> > for me. For the second, after my 8 drawings
> > I cannot imagine how I'd mouse-wrangle
> > something as simple as a wall cross-section
> > with complete positional and dimensional
> > precision. In postscript, it's just:
> >
> > /wall_height 2700 def % X Y X Y 3600 0 moveto
> > 100 wall_height box % Let's put it at 3600 mm
> > from origin, % at floor level.
>
> This is, again, exactly what I want. Is there
> a collection somewhere of the postscript syntax
> or how did you pick it up?
The Adobe book "Postscript Language Reference", third edition, is useful
for looking up commands, but the bulk of the text is prolix and obtusely
dense reading.
Better for readability and examples is the BLUEBOOK.PDF, which is the
first hit on a google for "postscript blue book".
Two methods of specifying paper size are required for both printers and
software packages to pick it up. I found a way that works, by googling.
What I've put together is only a beginning - enough to satisfactorily
complete one drafting job of 8 drawings. It's only one way to do it.
(And a couple of things would need generalising, e.g the WC and kitchen
sink are currently just drawn in situ, rather than being in a procedure.
One thing which makes editing 840 lines of postscript more manageable
has nothing to do with the language. Enabling Vim's text folding renders
the entire document as 26 lines of top level headings. That greatly
simplifies navigating. (Though I also use search on the comments.)
If there's a place to put an example and some very basic howto guff -
enough for someone to get started, then I could clean up what I have,
and put together a little bit of intro text. (There'd need to be some
explanation of the way I chain and abut walls of differing rotation to
build rooms and dividers.)
After that, the seed can be grown into anything you care to program.
Erik
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